Stolen Spirits, known for their smoked rum, are releasing their first whiskey.  Stolen Whiskey starts as an 11-year-old whiskey “distilled and aged right outside whiskey’s Kentucky heartland.” I do wish STOLEN was a bit more transparent with where they sourced this whiskey, but we are where we are.  This whiskey is then re-barreled with toasted barrel staves.  There’s no word on how long the secondary maturation period is.  The final whiskey is bottled at 46% abv, or 92 proof.

How is it?

The rich nose features a deep, dark caramel base with hints of furniture polish, espresso and nutmeg.  Taste-wise, the smoked oak staves barrel finish add burnt caramel and slightly bitter barrel char to a bed of Mexican chocolate, sweet vanilla cream, orange peel, and baked banana.  The medium finish leaves a bananas foster note and a hint of smoked oak on the tongue.

This is an interesting whiskey.  It sits mainly in the dark caramel/dark roast coffee area of the flavor spectrum, thanks to the smoked oak stave finishing.  And because of how much that that flavor profile dominates, I have to believe the secondary maturation lasts a relatively long time.  That, or the the base whiskey is bland to start with and the smoked staves add a lot of flavor fast.  Stolen Whiskey has a creamy mouthfeel and nice flavors, but sometimes seems like a bit of a one-trick pony.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, if you know what you’re getting here.  It’s not a complex whiskey to sit and contemplate for an hour.  I have a feeling this whiskey is designed with the cocktail market in mind.  I made an Irish coffee, but substituted Irish whiskey for Stolen whiskey.  The results were pretty damn good. Stolen Whiskey is scheduled to hit shelves in March. 7/10

Thanks to Stolen Spirits for the sample.  As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.